This crap cracks me up! Can you seriously point me towards the "chosen regional"? Sure Mesa is on the bottom of the contract scale but that is because they just went through CH11 bankruptcy. Looking at all the regional contracts they all seem to suck equally in one way or another. Unless you are looking at staying at a regional for your career, they are simply all the same. Crap pay, crap reserve rules (if any), and so on. Find a regional that has a base near you, get your time, and get out.